Sending astronauts once again to the moon — and one day to Mars — will require another giant leap for NASA. But the space agency took one of its first steps toward that objective recently with the help of a report from a committee chaired by Donald Fraser, director of the BU Photonics Center. The National Research Council (NRC) committee was commissioned by NASA to assess the relative merits of four possible systems integration approaches being proposed for Project Constellation, the program to build the crew exploration vehicle (CEV) and related exploration systems necessary to fulfill President George Bush’s ambitious vision for space travel

NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate is on the lookout for new concepts for its Vision for Space Exploration -- the White House-backed Moon, Mars and beyond agenda. And on November 16th, NASA selected a concept from Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation for inflatable thin-film ballutes for return from the Moon. Not only Moon-to-Earth traffic could benefit by using the ballute/aerocapture technique. So too could missions to Mars, as well as future probes to Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, and other distant destinations.

When the history of this lame duck Congress is written, historians may make little notes about the dustup over intelligence reform. However, their long memories are likely to record that, by funding the President's space initiative, this was a lame duck that soared. The $16.2 billion that Congress authorized for NASA, a five percent increase in its budget, made it official that mankind is headed outwards again -- to the moon, to Mars, and beyond. The House also passed a revised commercial space bill, which just a short time ago, was pronounced deader than Tom Daschle's political career.

Two aerospace giants, the Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp., said Tuesday they will form a partnership to compete for the contract to build NASA’s next manned spaceship. NASA will award two development contracts next year, potentially worth billions of dollars, for the spacecraft that will replace the space shuttle for carrying astronauts to and from space.

Nobody can claim that Burt Rutan, the innovative aerospace designer, doesn’t have his head in the clouds…and his eyes focused on the stars. Fresh from success of nudging the piloted SpaceShipOne’s nose to record-setting heights and capturing the $10 million Ansari X Prize, Rutan and his team at Scaled Composites have clearly set their sights on far loftier goals. One gets the feeling that in restricted niches of the Mojave Spaceport here, work is already underway on bigger and better spaceships. Asked directly about that prospect, Rutan is quick with a “no comment” that comes wrapped in a guarded smile.

The next generation space shuttle, like its predecessor, will serve many masters, as a cargo ship, a scientific laboratory, a docking platform, and a crew habitat. But according to Mark Fisher, Marshall Space Flight Center's manager of Exploration Systems, the next shuttle will be designed to "separate cargo from crew." That change is one lesson learned from flying the current shuttle for the last quarter century: human spaceflight has made cargo more expensive, and cargo can potentially make human spaceflight less safe. By splitting these basic tasks, it is hoped that a more robust shuttle, called the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), will emerge for its first unmanned flight test between 2008 and 2011.

The Bigelow Aerospace project to privately develop inflatable Earth-orbit space modules is beginning to integrate diverse U.S. and European technologies into subscale and full-scale inflatable test modules and subsystems at the company's heavily guarded facilities here. While much public attention is focused on the massive International Space Station (ISS), Bigelow has quietly become a mini-Skunk Works for the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC). Ongoing technical assistance to Bigelow from JSC is focused on helping the company spawn development of orbiting commercial inflatable modules by the end of the decade, with the possibility of JSC later using the Bigelow technology for inflatable modules on the Moon or Mars.

Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) was awarded a contract for space exploration concept studies by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Sept. 1. The initial value of the contract is $3 million for the first six months with an option for another six-month, $3 million study in the next phase. Lockheed Martin is one of 11 companies NASA selected to provide concepts for the development of a Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) as well as overall architecture concepts for human exploration of the moon. The CEV will carry future astronauts to space and provide transportation for astronauts to explore the moon and Mars. Among the key factors that Lockheed Martin will keep foremost in all of its concepts and recommendations are safety, reliability, sustainability, affordability and evolvability.

The cuts to NASA's fiscal year 2005 budget request contained in the House Appropriations Committee's NASA spending bill effectively would halt the agency's plans to develop a Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) and achieve new breakthroughs in in-space propulsion, according to Administrator Sean O'Keefe. "We can't do this at the levels that they've contemplated," O'Keefe told Senate lawmakers at a Sept. 8, 2004 hearing.

NASA today awarded the first contracts to conduct preliminary concept studies for human lunar exploration and the development of the crew exploration vehicle. Eleven companies were selected. The contracts, which total approximately $27 million, with a possible option worth an additional $27 million, are a result of the Concept Exploration and Refinement Broad Agency Announcement issued in May 2004.

Call it a space race. Competition to build a new craft to take astronauts to the moon and maybe Mars is on, with major area companies strategizing how to win contracts worth billions of dollars. And just how it all plays out will affect thousands of area jobs — from Clear Lake engineers to the Galveston science and medical communities — in an industry that clearly needs a boost.

Planners in NASA's Exploration Directorate recently gave United Press International an exclusive briefing on the steps they envision to fulfill President Bush's new vision for space exploration. These steps include designing the vehicle to fly back to the moon as well as the new fleet of atomic-powered spacecraft that may open up astronaut visits to deeper in space. In Part 1, NASA explains the different approach it is researching to achieve the first human visits to the moon since Apollo 17 in December 1972. When American astronauts make their return, some of their missions will resemble the old Apollo voyages and some will be far more advanced.

Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] has successfully performed a series of drop tests at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Yuma, Arizona, to validate soft landing technology that can be used for astronaut crew capsules upon return to Earth. The technology makes use of an array of dual airbags that, upon ground impact, releases air from the outer bags of the system, allowing the capsule to settle softly to the ground on its inner airbags.

Media representatives are invited to NASA Headquarters Thursday, June 24. NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe will outline the agency's Transformation, which is an important component of the final report from the Commission on Implementation of U.S. Space Exploration Policy.

The briefing is at 3 p.m. EDT in NASA's auditorium, 300 E Street SW, Washington. The briefing will be broadcast live on NASA Television and www.nasa.gov. Reporters can ask questions from participating NASA field centers.

The Final Report is now available from the Moon-Mars Commission. It contains a total of 8 findings and 14 recommendations, meant to transform NASA, focus the government on space exploration, and bolster the private sector to assist with space activities.

An Article from James Burk, the Founder and Editor of MarsNews.com

The Moon-Mars Commission will release their final report within a few days. In my humble opinion, this is what it should say if we want the new space vision to succeed.

President George W. Bush plans to make a major speech early this summer defending his plan for a new U.S. space exploration initiative, administration sources told United Press International. Sources said although drafting the speech -- termed a vigorous call to support the president's new space exploration policy he announced last January -- has not yet begun, aides have been narrowing prospective dates and venues. The speech apparently will be timed to coincide with a report by the presidential commission appointed earlier this year to review the space plan and seek broad public comment.

Editor's Note: This MUST-READ article also mentions that a comprehensize plan for reorganization of NASA is in the works, and will be "the most far-reaching revamping of NASA since its creation in 1958."

NASA may borrow a development approach from the U.S. Air Force and seek to build multiple prototypes of its proposed new moon landing craft, and then test competing designs against one another in a celestial version of an airplane designers' fly-off. Retired Adm. Craig E. Steidle, the new head of NASA's office responsible for developing the crew exploration vehicle, or CEV, has suggested that a fly-off competition might yield a better spacecraft in the long run, with the agency choosing the best-performing design over its closest competitor.

NASA must look to private space enterprises for support in future exploration missions, a panel of aerospace professionals and researchers told the President's Commission for the Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy on Wednesday. In a hearing before the commission tasked with shaping NASA's exploration aims, space entrepreneurs encouraged commissioners to embrace private access-to-space efforts and contests, such as the $10 million X Prize competition to spur interest in space travel.

The new space initiative announced by President Bush has the odd distinction of being criticized both for costing too much and costing too little. Many commentators have denounced Plan Bush an insanely grandiose program that will waste $1 trillion dollars of tax money. At the same time, another group of critics says that it is a trivially small program whose funding level is utterly inadequate to achieve its announced goals of manned flights to the Moon and Mars. John Pike goes so far as to call the Bush Plan "a roadmap for the quiet and orderly phase-out of manned space flight."

Marshall Space Flight Center will play a significant role in developing the Crew Exploration Vehicle, NASA's latest spacecraft, but how large a part and where the program will be managed has yet to be determined, a top NASA official said in Huntsville Wednesday.